This thread is for all things related to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the zenithal spelling event in the United States.

As you may know, there were more than 500 contestants this year because of the RSVBee program, in which spellers who don't have a local paper to sponsor them or didn't win their regional bee still have a shot at entering the NSB and becoming the next champion.

As every year, the National Spelling Bee's website has allowed visitors to take the preliminary test the contestants at the bee took, to see whether said visitors would have made it to the semifinals had they been a contestant this year. As one article noted, this year the preliminary test was so tough that no speller received a perfect score.

That's correct! You've completed the Preliminaries with a total score of 34.

The score necessary to advance to the Finals of the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee was 28.

Congratulations, and thanks for playing!

Wow -- I would have been one of the top scorers!

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

Spoiler:

I missed one spelling word (the scansion term from the French) and one vocabulary item (I thought "festucine" meant wavy -- I knew Festuca was the Linnaean name for fescue grass, but couldn't figure out what characteristic of this grass would inspire a derivation). I wasn't sure about the spelling of the bone, but I got it right. I also chose what looked right for the "screwy science" word.

With "timocracy", the "fear of the dictator" option seemed an obvious pick, but I knew that was a Latin root, and -ocracy gets attached to Greek roots. I tried to think of what "time" means in Greek, then I remembered the mineral xenotime, whose name means "empty honor" in Greek (xeno- comes not from the root for foreign or strange, but is a misreading in keno- empty, found in words like "cenotaph"). From this, I concluded that timo- means honor/glory, and was able to select the correct definition.

Take the test when you have some time. How did all of you do?

And by the way, all five of the top scorers on the preliminary test this year were in the final sixteen!

The score necessary to advance to the Finals of the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee was 28.

Cool I did better on the spelling than on the vocab.

Spoiler:

I got only two spelling words incorrect, pataphysics and bocconcini. I got lucky with "orpiment"; and I figured "eumolpique" had to be a single word beginning with "eu-" when it mentioned the Greek etymology.

I came in 3rd in my middle school's spelling bee in 6th grade and came in 2nd in 8th grade. Didn't qualify in 7th grade Of course it's much easier having choices here!

Spoiler:

I looked at "pteridophyte" and figured it was the most logical choice. I would not have been able to spell that intuitively.

The score necessary to advance to the Finals of the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee was 28.

Cool I did better on the spelling than on the vocab.

Spoiler:

I got only two spelling words incorrect, pataphysics and bocconcini. I got lucky with "orpiment"; and I figured "eumolpique" had to be a single word beginning with "eu-" when it mentioned the Greek etymology.

I came in 3rd in my middle school's spelling bee in 6th grade and came in 2nd in 8th grade. Didn't qualify in 7th grade Of course it's much easier having choices here!

Spoiler:

I looked at "pteridophyte" and figured it was the most logical choice. I would not have been able to spell that intuitively.

Good job!

Non-finalist here.

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

The score necessary to advance to the Finals of the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee was 28.

Cool I did better on the spelling than on the vocab.

Spoiler:

I got only two spelling words incorrect, pataphysics and bocconcini. I got lucky with "orpiment"; and I figured "eumolpique" had to be a single word beginning with "eu-" when it mentioned the Greek etymology.

I came in 3rd in my middle school's spelling bee in 6th grade and came in 2nd in 8th grade. Didn't qualify in 7th grade Of course it's much easier having choices here!

Spoiler:

I looked at "pteridophyte" and figured it was the most logical choice. I would not have been able to spell that intuitively.

When I was in 3rd through 7th grade, my brother qualified every year to the regional level spelling bees where we were. He ended up also qualifying for Nationals in 7th grade, so my mother, my brother, and I all got to go to Washington, D.C., so he could compete in the finals. Fortunately as well, the trip was largely paid for by the local newspaper (which was the sponsor, as you had to go through an oozepaper back then as well).

Back in those days, it went that you first had round 1, which was an on-stage oral round with all 250-ish contestants where they simply had to correctly spell one word. If you cleared that round, that evening was a written test with 25 words and ~80 people advancing before going to round-by-round eliminations; my brother, though, failed by one word to make it out of the written test.

That following year, though, which was also my final year of spelling bee eligibility, I actually beat my brother and made it to regionals... but ended up in 3rd place.

This was a long time ago, though... my brother went to Nationals fifteen years ago.

And I'll dance with you in Vienna,
I'll be wearing a river's disguise;
The hyacinth wild on my shoulder,
My mouth on the dew of your thigh...